The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-09-22
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND,
The Captured Flags and Pensions.
General George w. Morgan at
Cameron. Ohio.


The following is the concluding portion
of General Morgan's speech at Cameron,
Monroe county, on September 18th:
How clean, broad and patriotic the ad-
of President Cleveland has
been, when his order for the return of
the captured flags, deposited in the War
office, is made the chief subject OF conn
plaint against it.
The order was given, reconsidered and
and that is the begin
ming and the ending of the whole affair.
Not one captured flag has been or will be
removed from the National Capital, and
all this smoke ON the subject amounts to
nothing.
A nation is great family, in which
union and good will are vital elements;
as envy and discord are sources of weak
ness and failure. We of the North can
afford to be just and generous, for after
four years OF heroic battle, on either side,
the victory was ours.
During the war there was no malice
between the soldiers of the opposing
armies. The war over certain northern
and certain southern troops of their own
motion returned captured flags which
had been gallantly won, and as calamity
defended on well contested fields; and
those acts of generous chivalry were
hailed with loud acclaim from ocean to
ocean, and from Canada to Mexico; and
the world believed that we were again a
united people, bound together by the
ennobling sentiment of patriotism.
Inspired by such feeling, brave and
meritori6us soldier of two wars, who,
when but boy, enlisted in the first
regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers in
our war with Mexico, and who for gal
lantry was promoted from the ranks to q
lieutenancy In q PECULIAR regiment and
who is now Adiqtant General Of the
army Of the United States suggested to
the Secretary Of War, and he 70 the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic, that the
captured flags deposited in the War Office
should be restored TO those from whom
they had been g,oriousiy won, and by
whom they had been calamity defended.
The President did order those flags to be
returned; but, on further consideration,
countermanded the prdeF The 'prder
was generous and patriotic mistake; Q
mistake prompted by desire TO prove to
the people OF the south that we are all
couptrymen again that We have but one
fiag-the stag spangled banner or the
Union. But for all that, the order was
calculated to, and did wound the sus-
capabilities Of many Union soldiers, and
this constituted the mistake, OF all men
soldiers are the most impulsive, but as {
rule they are the most generous of mem
and brave and generous men should mo-
allow party motives to smother the CRANE
and poble impulse of generosity. Le
the man WHO never committed mistake
step to the front For he 10 the onl,
man who has right TO cast a stone a
Grover Cleveland. The man does no
live WHO never cammitted a mistake
And if the order was a mistake, 90 hav'
been the assaults made against the Presi
dent. - --~--
In one of the many histories of tn,
battle OF Waterloo, legend is told o
tive aides de camp-the one of Napoleon
the other Of Wellington, Whe crossed
each others path, each bearing aR orde
from his chief, on the execution of whicl
fh..fnta of tho hattln might dePuua. Th,
Frcnchman bore down upon the Eng
lishman, who rode steadily on his course
but as they neared each other the Eng
lishman raised the stump of his swor,
arm, which had been shot away in
former battle, and instead of striking ri
disabled foe, the Frenchman brought hi
sword IA d salute and galloped on:
I! His doing SO was mistake Of generosi
ty. The Englishman should have beel
made prisoner, and the failure to do s
might have lost the battle; but tn
nobility of the mistake has always re
ceived more praise than censure.
/ The great Napoleon is credited witt
| saying: He is the best general VIII
makes the fewest mistakes, and despit
| all the grandeur of bis character, he wa
not an exception to his own genera
rule.
But let us look at home and it Is un
| necessary to go farther back than tn
| great civil wpr; the grandest trial b.
battle the world has ever seen; wa
which not only saved the Union, bu
| placed our country in the forefront c
| nations.
| When the national flag was fred upo
at Sumter, the seeding states were dest
tnte, or nearly SO, OF military officers {
skill and experience, while the Unite
States had more than twelve hundred
As for fighting, the American voluI
teer north and south, fights as bravely il
his first battle as in his last, Is Shilo
and Donnelson prove but to make hi
courage and intelligence thorough
effective, there must be organization
discipline and drill and these requisite
the south did not possess, until mistak
| OF President Lincoln furnished the cor
federates with pearly two hundred off
GERS OF skill and experience, whose rel
ignations he accepted after Sumter ha
been fired upon, and when II was know
they were about TO take up arms againi
the Union.
hold in my hand the official arm
register published by order of the Secre
tary of War, in Sept. 1861, which give
the names and dates of the resignation
Of southern officers, which were accepte
by Mr.. Lincoln after our flag had bee
fred upon at Sumter. And in the liz
We find the pames Of Robert Z. Lee
Albert Sidney johnson and Jaseph E
Johnson the equals of Grant ahd Nc
Clellan and Sheridan. And also tn
names of James E. Longstreet one o
he thunderbolts of southern war; o
Ticket, whose name was made immorta
with that of Hancock, the hero of Get
,ysburg, in that decisive battle of tn,
war and ALSO the names of Kirby Smith
Beauregard, Van Dorm, PembeFtop
stephen u. Lee. Magurler, Bee, tn
Hills, the Garnetts, and OF j. E. ]
Stuart, of the Black Horse cavalry, who's
fame will live as long as history is wri
ten and read and these men were th
equals of our Hooker, who won . vic
ory when fighting above the clouds;
Buell., the victor of Shiloh; of McPhe
son, the Desaix of our western armies
of THOMAS, the model soldier and p
triot; of Sherman, the hero Of the marc
to the sea; of Mcdowell, one of the tr,
est and ablcst OF all our generals, an
Slocum and Logan, McClernand, Shield
Steedman and Blair, and scores OF other
their equals, who often led our armies